I post reviews (here) of Film Noir movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age of Noir, the 1940s and 1950s. I write as an amateur film noir enthusiast, but not an authority as such.

Maybe, like me, you are looking to enjoy films that are different, or of a different era. Films you may not have seen, ones encompassing cynical detectives, seductive femme fatales, flawed sidekicks all tossed together into intricate plots. (Not forgetting the snappy dialogue too).

Backstory: Film Noir has its roots in German expressionist cinematography and American crime fiction. During the 1930s Hollywood became a perfect storm of film artists fleeing the threat of Nazi Germany, emigrating to America, and specifically to the Film studios of Hollywood. This included great directors such as Fritz Lang, Jaques Tourneur, Michael Curtiz and Robert Siodmak.

This new dramatic visual style combined with American hardboiled crime stories (noir fiction), emerged during the Great Depression and produced many classic noirs. Some of these writers include: Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Jim Thompson and Mickey Spillane.

I hope to showcase some of these memorable noir movies here for you. And advance apologies for a mixture of British and  US English occasionally. I have applied the link below, to the Amazon.com DVD of today’s featured film. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases).

Inspired by hardboiled detective stories and film noir, I have written a, Sterling Private Investigator Series, set in present-day London. I have also posted a link to my books at the bottom of the page.

 

Today’s film is:

Murder, My Sweet

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^{“They soften you up, throw you off guard, and then belt you one.”}

 Film Studio: RKO Radio Pictures, 1940/ B&W

Director: Edward Dmytryk

Original Music: Roy Webb

Cinematography: Harry J. Wild

Film Editor: Joseph Noriega

Written by: John Paxton, Raymond Chandler

Produced by: Adrian Scott

Main Actors: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley

Budget: $400,000

Run time: 93 minutes

 

Preview

Murder, My Sweet (Titled, Farewell, My Lovely, in the UK), is a 1944 film based on Raymond Chandler’s 1940 novel, Farewell, My Lovely. Directed by Edward Dmytryk, it stars Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley. The film is recognized as being an early film noir, and one, which greatly influenced the film genre.

Cinema audiences previously loved Dick Powell for his musical offerings, but he swapped his dancing shoes and 42nd Street, for a firearm, a fedora and a frown. (Or for a grin and wisecracking dialogue). But Powell chose a perfect film to reset his acting career genre, and as it turned out, the film proved to be a smash hit.

The reality for Powell and the studio was that he was typecast. RKO, believing audiences would presume their new movie (starring Dick Powell), would be a musical, they wanted a darker sounding title. Hence, the title change and adding, “murder” in the title.

The film debuts (Chandler’s) hard-boiled private detective, Phillip Marlowe. Though Chandler had initially written the character of Marlowe in short stories, such as The Black Mask, this marks Marlowe’s debut in film. One of the “other” Marlowe’s – Humphrey Bogart — wouldn’t appear until 1946, in the classic, The Big Sleep.

Synopsis

The slightly complex plot begins with an interrogation by the police of a blindfolded Phillip Marlowe (a tough, hard-nosed private investigator), about two murders.

And much like the plot in The Big Sleep, this is one of those movies, you almost have to take notes! If you do get lost, it shouldn’t affect your enjoyment of the film, however. The story is told through flashback and allows great use of voiceover narration by the protagonist, Marlowe.

Anyway, back to that police interview… Marlowe recalls a story which begins in his office, late at night. As he stares out of his window, he is interrupted by a man called Moose Malloy (played by Mike Mazurki). The intruder is erratic and unsophisticated and a big hulk of a man. He wants Marlowe to find an ex-girlfriend of his: Velma Valento. A singer and entertainer. So, starts a web of mystery and deceit and those two murders…

Malloy is still smitten with Velma, but has been away serving an eight year prison sentence. Marlowe tells him to come back in the morning but Malloy throws down “two twenties” on the desk which, not surprisingly, gets the detective’s attention (that’s a good amount of money in those days). As Marlowe says himself, “The joint (a bar called, Florians), looked like trouble but that didn’t bother me, nothing bothered me; those two twenties felt nice and snug against my appendix.”

Malloy takes Marlowe to Florian’s because it was the last place he saw Velma, but with no leads, Mallloy rearranges the furniture by throwing the proprietor across the tables and chairs. Time to leave. Marlowe asks how he can get hold of him, Malloy says, he will be in touch. That’s all we hear of Moose Malloy for a while…

In search of Velma Valento, Marlowe visits Jessie Florians, the widow of the previous bar owner (played by Esther Howard): “What do you want, copper?” Marlowe observes she is unsteady on her feet and has had more than a nightcap. She’s had the whole bottle. She says she doesn’t know any Velma Valento (presenting photos of past singers and entertainers…), but she does neglect to pull one particular picture from the drawer. Marlowe grabs it, demanding answers. Jessie Florian, now angry and upset says, she’s dead.

A socialite called Marriott (played by Otto Kruger), asks Marlowe to act as a bodyguard and a go-between, wanting to buy back a stolen and expensive, jade necklace. The rendezvous is at night in a rural neck of the woods. Marlowe decides to drive out there with his client secreted in the back seat. The area is foggy, dark and eerie. The upshot is that while Marlowe is scouting through the trees, flashlight in hand, his client, Marriott is clubbed to death. Marlowe sees a fleeting image of someone who quickly disappears into the darkness. A moment later, Marlowe gets whacked on the head.

Next, we watch as Marlowe (unconvincingly), explains to the cops the bruise on his head, a stolen necklace and a dead body. And how it all came about. The cops ask if he knows someone named, Amthor (which he doesn’t), and they advise him to stay away from him and the case. They’ve inadvertently given him a clue to one of the players in this mystery.

A cute young woman is waiting for Marlowe in his office. She says she’s a newspaper reporter and has heard abut the stolen jade necklace (she’s keen to know the details of Marriott’s murder). Marlowe invites her in, but suspects her story is baloney, he upends her handbag revealing an I.D. and her real identity: Ann Grayle. She explains that Marriott was a family friend and he was asked to buy back the necklace from the thieves (at a significant lesser price).

Marlowe drives over to Ann Grayle’s father’s mansion, wanting to conclude his investigation (as his client, Marriott is dead). There, he meets the wealthy Mr Grayle (played by Miles Mander), and his younger wife Helen Grayle (played by Claire Trevor). Marlowe learns that the expensive jade necklace was stolen while Helen Grayle was out dancing and that her husband had paid Marriott to buy it back.

Before Marlowe leaves, Jules Amthor shows up, (he is a psychic healer having treated both Helen Grayle and Marriott). Amthor wants to find the jade necklace and exchanges words with Marlowe. He has also duped Moose Malloy into believing Marlowe knows the whereabouts of Velma.  Thus, the two investigations become entwined with Marlowe’s search for Velma Valento and everything is suddenly not as it seems. Worse still, Moose Malloy is upset with Marlowe. You have a sense already; this isn’t going to end well.

Things to like

A striking night scene has Marlowe sitting in his high-rise office looking out on Los Angeles as the neon lights flicker on and off. Marlowe narrates (almost poetically) about the traffic and the “deadly silence” of the office buildings, “not being quite real”. We first see Moose Malloy by way of his reflected image on the window, appearing and then disappearing as those lights blink. Marlowe turns back around to see an unsmiling brute of a man, leaning over his desk.  Sinister and creepy. The dramatic illumination in this early scene evokes the noir tone for the rest of the movie.

The surreal dream sequence Marlowe has after being drugged. Marlowe is running through doors, falling downstairs (in slow motion), and being jabbed by oversize syringes. The sort of sequences Hitchcock made famous many years later in films such as, Vertigo.

Funny: Marlowe, standing waiting outside the Grayle’s residence and strikes a match to (light his cigarette), on the rear end of a sculpture of Cupid.

Narration: I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet, I dived in. It had no bottom. I felt pretty good, like an amputated leg.

 

 

Quotes

Marlowe: “How many Marriott’s are there? Pretty guys that take you dancing.”

Helen Grayle: “I’m very fond of my husband.”

Marlowe: “Only his two-step’s getting a little stiff.”

***

Marlowe (narrating): She was a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink. She was a gal who’d take a drink, if she had to knock you down to get the bottle.

***

Helen Grayle: “You will help me, won’t you.”

Marlowe: “Is this for love, or are you paying me something in money?”

Helen Grayle: “”I’ve never hired a private detective. What are the rates?”

Marlowe: “As much as the traffic will bear.”

Helen Grayle: “When can you start?”

Marlowe: “I’ve already started.”

***

Moose Malloy: “Where do you figure I’ve been away those eight years?”

Marlowe: “Catching butterflies?”

***

Marlowe (narrating): It was a nice little front yard, cosy, okay for the average family, only you’d need a compass to go to the mailbox.

 

Must see scene

Hard to choose, but when we are first introduced to a clan of disparate characters. Marlowe enters a palatial sitting room and meets Mr Grayle, the homeowner, who then introduces Marlowe to his wife sitting across the room. Helen Grayle is posed coyly in a luxurious chair with one shapely and outstretched leg in full view. She nods as she glances back to Marlowe, but his attention is diverted back to her leg. She notices. He notices she notices etc.

From the looks that pass between them, we can interpret her relationship with her (older), husband is lifeless, and that she is open to flirtations from younger men. The games afoot, as Sherlock Holmes might say.

As the scene progresses, the elderly Mr Grayle, retires, tired, leaving them to talk about the missing jade necklace. The couple get cosy on the couch, only briefly interrupted by Grayle’s stepdaughter, when their blossoming attraction is resumed. Though, with Marlowe, we’re never quite sure if he is sincere, or has other (detective), intentions in mind. The giveaway perhaps is when Mrs Grayle says, “I thought detectives were heavy drinkers, ” he replies, “Well, some of them are. Some of them just encourage other people to drink.” And talk presumably. And of course, he never seems too put out, if and when, some light smooching is called for in his quest to get to the bottom of the case, and the truth.

 

 

Summary

Murder, My Sweet is one of the best noirs of the 1940s. The dialogue is like a triple-punch to the gut: witty, sharp, and tough. This crime noir story is gripping. Claire Trevor makes a great femme fatale; seductive and deliciously deceitful. Powell is superb in his transformational role. Anne Shirley (her last film role before retiring), is charmingly innocent and protective of her father and who despises her stepmother. A movie rich in atmosphere, engrossing and deserving of its reputation.

The story’s inspiration can be summed up by the master, Raymond Chandler himself:

“When your plot hits a snag, have somebody come through the door with a gun.”

 

 

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****

 

 

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